Since the company started trading earlier this year, EvoSwitch has enabled its customers to measure the power consumption of their equipment at cabinet level. Energy costs were charged for the actual power consumed by the cabinet. This in itself was already a new development in the market. Actually, many datacenters charge an all-in price for the estimated power consumption. Measurement at cabinet level was therefore not necessary. "An all-in price for power consumption is an out-of-date principle," says Laurens Rosenthal, Innovation Director at the EvoSwitch datacenter. “Charging an all-in price is based on the situation seven years ago when energy consumption was not yet such an issue. Now it is. ICT equipment uses a lot of power, even though energy stocks in the market are limited. That’s why it is important to stimulate datacenter users to purchase energy-efficient equipment. And also to stimulate them to make the associated processes as energy-efficient as possible. That can only happen if users have an insight into the exact power consumption of their equipment."

Higher returns from the datacenter cabinet
This step makes it possible to precisely measure the power consumption of the EvoSwitch customer’s equipment. And that is an attractive proposition for a small company. “In concrete terms, lower power consumption of the equipment means a lower energy bill for small users,” says Rosenthal. "We hope that this will stimulate our small business customers to save energy. Finally, this will not only save them money in terms of power but also ensure that they can use their cabinet space at EvoSwitch more efficiently. That also saves costs."

"If the equipment uses a lot of power, you quickly reach the maximum capacity of a cabinet. That’s a shame because you pay for the cabinet even though you’re not using the maximum space available. These days, energy is the limiting factor in a datacenter. By handling this more efficiently, you can finally get a higher return from the cabinet that you’re renting."

Tracking down energy wastage
Of course, the possibility of measuring power consumption at quarter-rack level is also interesting for bigger players. “This enables them to track down energy wastage more effectively, “says Rosenthal. ”It immediately becomes clear which part of the cabinet has high power consumption. As a user, you can then take specific action."